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Climate change tops the list of vital challenges of our time, say young people interviewed by Amnesty International. The new Future of Humanity survey of over 10,000 18-25-year olds across 22 countries reveals that 41% of respondents cited global warming as the most important issue facing the world.

Amnesty International published the findings today at the UN Climate Change Conference to mark Human Rights Day.

Considering that 2019 saw the youth mobilised to ask climate action, the results weren’t surprising. “This is a wake-up call to world leaders that they must take far more decisive action to tackle the climate emergency or risk betraying younger generations further,” said Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of Amnesty International.

Ipsos MORI, on behalf of Amnesty International, questioned the so-called Generation Z on their opinion regarding the current state of human rights in their country and the world, the issues they feel are most important, and who they feel is responsible for addressing abuses.

The people surveyed were also asked about other struggles and they mentioned corruption as one of the most important issues at a national level (36%), followed by economic instability (26%), pollution (26%), income inequality (25%), once more climate change (22%) and violence against women (21%).

As for what is needed to address those challenges, the majority agreed that the protection of human rights is fundamental (73%), even if it might have a negative impact on the economy (60%). In fact, young people think that their governments should take the citizens’ wellbeing more seriously than economic growth (63%).

Future of humanity survey

Amnesty International

Finally, 73% of respondents said governments should take most responsibility for ensuring human rights are upheld—rather than individuals (15%), businesses (6%) and charities (4%).

“If the leaders of the world are willing to listen carefully, they will notice that Generation Z are not asking for small tweaks. Young people are looking for fundamental changes in the way the world works,” added Naidoo. “If the events of 2019 teach us anything, it is that younger generations deserve a seat at the table when it comes to decisions about them.

“Above all, governments must begin the new decade with meaningful action to address the climate emergency, reduce inequality and put in place genuine reforms to end abuses of power.”

Human rights education activist in Chile and member of the Global Youth Collective, Karin Watson, believes that the environmental crisis is linked to a social crisis.

“It’s important to think that we are the future and that the future is ours so we work to not go extinct, but we should avoid this narrative because we are all living the present and it must be an intergenerational fight,” said Watson. “We are rising to change the laws and push our governments to take clear action.”

On Human Rights Day, Amnesty International is asking for a new political agenda that nurtures human rights. Climate change should then be defined as one of the priorities, as well as a just transition process. Additionally, as 164 environmental defenders were killed around the world last year, a greater protection must be guaranteed to them.

Meanwhile at the climate summit, countries have started pulling back on the commitments made in Paris.

“We saw the same last year in Katowice, when we didn’t see any reference to human rights in the rulebook adopted—which was already a bad sign,” said Chiara Liguori, policy adviser on environment and human rights at Amnesty International. “This is a critical moment so as civil society, even if we won’t see the language that we want here, we will use other means in practice to achieve the inclusion of human rights.”

I am a reporter focused on environment, business, human rights, and anything in between.
I am currently based in Brussels, where I freelance and edit the association

…

I am a reporter focused on environment, business, human rights, and anything in between.
I am currently based in Brussels, where I freelance and edit the association magazine Headquarters.
Before that, I worked for Property Week in London, handling data analysis, visualisations and investigations. I covered sustainability and environmental issues such as energy regulations, the use of technology across the sector, the risks posed by contamination or floods.
I completed my education across Italy, Germany and the UK. I studied History and Anthropology in Genoa, got my first MA in Political Science after a period spent at Potsdam University, then my second MA in Science Journalism at City University of London.
My reporting on migration and politics appeared on a variety of outlets, including Deutsche Welle, Euronews and SciDev.Net.